Sun, smoke, haze and tall weeds came together at the right moment in an inversion.

In Los Angeles, an inversion, though not a four-letter word, is viewed with the same contempt that a four-letter word earns in polite company. Inversions exacerbate smog problems. In LA, (lower Arkansas), on a late August late afternoon, an inversion is a good thing if you are looking for a good shot. Inversions hold hazy layers close to the ground.

It was an overall lucky day. Earlier I found an old home place stand of trees in a “cotton patch.” See what I found on the Photo of the Week Page at Corndancer dot com. Click here to go there. A cool thing to do. We’ll wait here.

Back to the inversion.The sun was setting fast just a half mile or so from the Arkansas River levee east of Tamo, Arkansas. It was then that I spotted a layer of smoke from a shouldering field burn-off sandwiched between me and the sun. In the foreground were weeds standing tall along the road right of way, well nourished from fertile field runoff. The moment was fleeting.

A visual scan of the scene made me immediately grateful for whatever higher power steered me in this direction. A few moments earlier and the effect would not have been the same. A few minutes later and it would be gone forever.

Sometimes one picture is two. In this case, weeds, haze, and sun make a statement. Any accolades belong to the higher power which steered me in this direction and stuck my nose in it.

The light and layers make for an eye-candy experience which begs to be explored and inexorably proves the theory that a fortuitous amalgamation of visual assets is greater than the parts. Here a common field, a distant treeline, weeds normally scorned, and a layer of smoke accentuated by natural late afternoon haze in front of a setting sun create a “Wow” moment. Beauty is where you find it.